by Holly Hook
Janelle wasn’t sure how she managed to stand. It took minutes. The damage was done. Operation Reckoning would go ahead as planned.
New York City. It was always ground zero in all those bad disaster movies. Always had a target on it for every possible disaster. But they never got hurricanes there. At least, not the strong ones. All the really deadly ones were in places with palm trees. Storms that went north of the Carolinas always seemed to get weak and die—right? It was why she’d told Gary to head north if he managed to change.
But Andrina had that DVD about future disasters out in the living room. If a powerful New York City hurricane was really possible, it would be in there. From the silence outside her room, it sounded like she had left.
Janelle rushed out into the living room, where only the shark swimming in its tank greeted her with its row of jagged teeth. The DVD sat on top of the player. She swiped it off with a trembling hand. Sweat marks formed on the plastic around her fingers.
Geographic Review’s Future Disasters. A tornado, a volcano, a tsunami, and a hurricane took up the cover. She averted her eyes, popped it open, and pulled out the shiny booklet inside. That would tell her, or at least give her a clue. Pages flipped in her hands. Wildfires. Asteroid impacts. Tornadoes. Glaciers. Death. And then—
New York City vs. Major Hurricane.
Janelle’s heart stopped. God.
Skyscrapers rose up from a massive flood, almost skeletal with their windows broken out. On the next page, a gigantic hurricane spun over the ocean, anticipating its prey.
Janelle couldn’t help it. She screamed and threw the booklet on the leather couch, burying her face in her hands. It was possible after all.
Someone hammered on the double doors. “Janelle! You in there? I can’t open this. It’s locked, but I’ll break it down if I have to.”
Gary.
She bolted to the doors, nearly slipping on the polished floors. With a tug they came open, and Gary stood on the other side with a guy in glasses of about nineteen or twenty.
He barged in, followed by his companion. “Andrina’s meeting with the Elder Council right now and she took Alec and Ivanna with her, so we were able to get up here. This is the Joey I was telling you about.”
Joey shook Janelle’s hand in a hurry. She barely registered it.
“Hello,” he said. “I heard Andrina was going to make you listen to her brainwashing stuff in your sleep. If you know where she keeps the recordings, I can exchange them with these discs.” He fished in his pocket and produced a couple of CDs in blue cases. “I burned them on my computer. She’ll think she’s giving you the real thing, but then they switch to some classical music about ten minutes through. And I don’t think Mozart’s going to make you kill thousands of people.”
Janelle stiffened and stared down at the help that had come too late. The mask crumbled, and everything burst forth that she was supposed to hide and control. “It’s already been done!” she wailed, turning and pounding her fists on the leather couch. Tears filled her eyes. She plucked the Future Disasters booklet off the cushion and threw it at Gary. “That’s what I’m going to do.”
Gary flipped it open and blanched. “Are you sure, Janelle? Very few Tempests can pull that off. Hurricanes get weak when they get to that colder water up around New York.” He was trying to sound hopeful, but there was a nervous undertone to his voice.
“But I’m supposed to be the strongest,” Janelle said, voice wobbling. Warm tears ran down her cheeks now, and she didn’t care. “What else would she want to use me for?”
Joey shuffled over and eyed the booklet. “So this is how she's going to start her war?"
“It would get the world's attention like nothing else would," Gary said, the last of his own mask falling away. "I…I think she’s planning to reveal us to everybody while Janelle’s…you know. To start it all. She wants the whole world to be scared of us."
“Let’s put the DVD in,” Joey said, ashen. He snatched it off the couch and headed for the TV. “We’ve got time. Those meetings always take at least three hours, and with Operation Reckoning it’s going to be a long one.”
“No,” Janelle pleaded over the lump in her throat.
“There might be something in it that’s useful,” Joey said, turning on the television.
The logo for Future Disasters popped up on the screen and dramatic music played in surround sound.
Janelle stood behind the couch and sniffed. She had to get it together. Crying wouldn’t help her situation. Leslie was still trapped here somewhere. If any good was to come out of this, she'd have to get herself back under control.
Gary appeared next to her. His hand wrapped around hers and squeezed, sending waves of calm through her body. It felt warm, safe. It was the only comfort she’d had all day.
It was short-lived. The screen filled with the Manhattan skyline and slowly zoomed in. A man narrated with a voice filled with doom. “New York City. Home to eight million people and also the economic center of the country. And also a place not commonly associated with hurricanes. And yet,” the man paused as the screen changed to a satellite map of Long Island, “New York City is one of the most susceptible cities to their wrath, with damages potentially in the hundred billion dollar range if one were to strike. And it is not a matter of if, but when.”
When. That word again.
The screen changed to a satellite shot of an unknown hurricane in the Atlantic. Ominous music played. Gary’s grip on her hand tightened. Joey flinched. Bile rose in Janelle’s throat. No, she didn’t want to see that. She stared down at the leather couch until it vanished.
The narrator continued. “If a Category Three storm or higher arrived at or near New York City during high tide, a storm surge of as high as thirty feet could race up the Hudson River towards Manhattan, flooding the island and the subway systems.”
Water rose in a subway tunnel, then around a group of office buildings. “It would rise around Wall Street, shutting down the stock exchange for weeks. The windows to all the skyscrapers would blast out, raining glass on anyone standing in the streets. Millions of people would need to be evacuated in a very short amount of time.”
A woman appeared in front of a black background. “The devastation could be incredible, dwarfing that of the infamous Andrina. Manhattan could become inescapable with all the flooding. Also, it’s hard enough to get around when the city’s traffic is normal, so an evacuation would pose a great challenge. Huge traffic jams could result as the storm bears down on the city.”
The man returned. “But worst of all is the fact that hurricanes moving to the north move much faster than their southern counterparts. A strong hurricane could race north in a day without losing its punch. Residents would have maybe a day and a half’s warning to evacuate, which clearly is not enough time for so many people. Deaths could climb into the thousands.”
Janelle broke away from Gary and buried her face in the couch. "Get rid of it. Please." Every word of the show had stabbed into her like a flying knife.
Gary’s voice rose to a yell. “Take it out, Joey. This isn’t doing any good. We’re better off looking for the yacht keys.”
With a click, the TV turned off.
Gary’s arms wrapped around her, pulling her away from the couch. Janelle sank into his hug as his warmth enveloped her. Only then did she realize she was crying again.
“Shhh,” he said, rubbing his hand along her back. “We’re breaking out of here. We’ll find those keys.”
The keys. Of course. Janelle lifted her head from Gary’s shoulder and rubbed her eyes on her sleeve. “She’s got to have them here. Where would she keep them?”
Gary shrugged. “I’ve never been up here before. You’re the only reason I got in.”
“Well, look everywhere.” Janelle wiped the tears away and pulled the cushions off the couch, holding in the urge to apologize for crying a
nd embarrassed that she'd broken down like that in front of him.
Joey put his palms in the air. “Um…I don’t know if trashing the Tempest High Leader’s apartment is such a good idea.”
“I’ll say I did it," Janelle said. "She won't kill me. And she deserves it. Now help."
Cupboards flew open, rugs overturned, and books toppled from shelves as they searched every square inch of the apartment. Janelle tossed whole drawers to the kitchen floor. Nothing. She rushed out into the living room and flipped over rugs while Gary took a pair of tongs and dug through the gravel on the bottom of the piranha tank. Still nothing.
“Go through every room,” she said, pointing down the hall.
They flipped the mattress off Andrina’s canopy bed and tore apart her closet full of gray business suits, going through the pockets. No keys. Janelle pawed through the medicine cabinet and even pulled the gratings from the air vents. The last hope drained from her as they peered into the last one. Nothing but a cobweb.
“She must have taken them with her,” she said, sinking down the floor of the hallway and wrapping her arms around her legs. “I should’ve known. Where else would she have them but her pocket?"
Gary sat beside her, bangs hanging in his face. “Hey, it was worth a try.”
He was out of ideas. It was all up to her now. “No,” she said, pulling herself up against the despair trying to push her back down. “If I don’t get out of here, thousands of people are going to die. And we have to get Leslie back to the mainland.”
“She’s right,” Joey said, pushing his glasses up on his nose. “But we have to get the keys first. There’s no point in breaking her friend Leslie out if we can’t get out of here.”
He was right. “What if she put the keys somewhere else on Alara?” Janelle asked, running for the double doors and jumping over an avalanche of books. “There’s got to be a break room or a garage or something.”
Gary stepped over a toppled table. “Yeah right, Janelle. She knew me and Joey would get out of our rooms when she called Alec and Ivanna to the meeting. That means she's convinced we can't get out of here."
Janelle froze, her hand on one of the doors. “Then we’ll have to overpower her. There’s three of us now. We need to get Leslie first. I won’t risk Andrina telling Kevin to kill her.”
Would Leslie even accept her help now? She would have to.
“Go after Andrina?” Joey exploded, eyes widening behind his glasses. “Oh, no. I wasn’t asking for this.”
“Yes, go after Andrina. I’m supposed to be stronger than her. You guys are going to help me." She winced at the low blow she was about to make, but it was necessary. "Did you like it when she made you kill a hundred people, Joey?”
Joey gripped the back of the couch, face growing red and jowls wobbling. She’d hit him where it hurt, but they didn’t have time to worry about that.
“All right,” he said, shoving the couch so hard that it toppled onto the glass coffee table. A shattering sound filled the room and died. “This Leslie. If Andrina knew me and Gary would get out, she could’ve moved her to another location so we can’t find her. Andrina’s got brains. Where’d she say they’d be keeping her?”
“Basement, I think,” Janelle said, opening the doors on the empty stairwell. She’d been too stung by Leslie’s rejection to hear Kevin and Andrina clearly. But it made sense. Where else did you keep prisoners?
“Must be the storage areas. We can check.” Joey led the way down the stairs.
Janelle followed him into the dome with the fish tanks. The fish swam in circles inside their tubes, oblivious to the nightmare going on outside their little world. The lights had dimmed in the hall and their footfalls echoed off the walls. No light filtered down through the spiral in the dome ceiling. Night had fallen. She had been asleep for a long time, listening to that recording.
If they threw her in the ocean now, Operation Reckoning would become a reality.
“Are they all in the meeting?” Janelle asked.
“Most of them,” Gary said, taking her arm.
Janelle shuddered. Kevin must still be guarding Leslie.
The hallway curved ahead and opened up into the main chamber. Circles of light shined around the plants and reflected off the now-black windows. The gray spiral on the floor seemed to twist for a second, but Janelle blinked. An illusion. Only the air conditioning blew against her skin, raising an army of goosebumps along her arms.
“Which way to storage?” she asked. Two other hallways branched off from this one.
“He dragged Leslie down that one, remember?” Gary pointed to the middle one and gulped, realization stealing over his features. “We’ll have to pass the meeting hall.”
Janelle swore, but they couldn't turn back now. “Come on. If we wait for the meeting to end they’ll all be out here. Let’s take off our shoes until we’re past it or we’ll make too much noise.” Her voice echoed off the walls and the polished floors. It was something Leslie would have thought of. She could piece anything together.
“Good thinking.” Gary took off his shoes and wiggled his toes inside his gray socks.
She tucked her shoes behind a potted plant and watched as Gary and Joey did the same. Pulse roaring in her ears, she followed them, shuffling her feet to keep them from slapping on the floor. Only quiet surrounded them on all sides. She'd finally made a good decision.
Muffled voices floated down the walkway. A pair of wooden double doors stood wide open ahead, a pair with the Tempest swirl carved on them. A yellow glow spilled out and formed a rectangle on the wall like a prison searchlight. A long, human-shaped shadow moved across it.
“Now what?” Janelle mouthed to Gary. They had left the doors open for a reason: to watch for them. It meant that Leslie was definitely down this hall.
A pang shot through her at the thought of her friend. If their situations were reversed, would Leslie do this for her?
Gary crept up to the door and peeked in through the crack in the corner. He waved them over and ducked down to let Janelle peek into the meeting hall.
A long, polished table with a glass Tempest swirl etched in it stretched down the room, shining in the light of a chandelier. A group of ten suited older people sat in leather rolling chairs around it while other Tempests—at least twenty of them—occupied benches along the walls. Some had lines under their eyes and an older man fidgeted like he wasn't pleased. Ivanna and Alec shuffled their feet on the thick blue carpet. They looked bored. Camellia was with them, too, dressed in a navy blue suit. She glared up to the front of the room, where Andrina stood behind a podium. It seemed like they had been deliberating for hours, and judging from the thick tension in the room, possibly arguing.
Janelle's heart wrenched. Going in there to steal the yacht keys would make as much sense as trying to swim off the island.
“I'm glad that we're all settled now. Dim the lights,” Andrina ordered someone near the door. “I want a nice, ominous feel to this video. Got the camera pointing at me? Good.” She smiled, letting the false sugar melt away. “I’ve been rehearsing this for weeks.”
The lights dimmed, leaving only one shining on Andrina’s face, which looked like a pale moon in the darkness. The other Tempests seemed like magical shadows hunched around their master, waiting for an order to go haunt children’s nightmares. It was fitting.
“Rolling,” a man said.
“Greetings, humanity,” Andrina said as she folded her arms. “You may not believe what I am about to say at first, but you will discover it to be true in a few days' time. I am Andrina L. Morgen, leader of the entire Tempest race. We have met before, though not in the form that I am in now…”
Andrina trailed off as she spilled the truth about Tempests and their abilities, swelling with pride. Confusion washed over Gary's face, and then Joey's. Janelle felt the same. She was making a video to send to the world’s ne
ws stations, but why was she revealing everything if she was so scared of being discovered?
“We are your gods, and it would be in your best interest to follow any instructions we give you in the future,” she went on, the growl creeping into her voice. “If you don’t believe me, look into my eyes and see what I truly am.” A pause as the camera no doubt zoomed in for the full horror. “I’m sure this isn’t enough proof for you, so I have devised a little plan called Operation Reckoning.”
A shudder raced down Janelle’s spine as she stiffened. That was about to get spilled, too. She did not want to hear this.
“Perhaps you will all believe me when my prediction comes true to every detail. One of our numbers, Hurricane Janelle, will strike New York City directly at high tide in only a few days. A thirty foot storm surge will drown a good portion of Manhattan and flood the subway system. Thousands of your pathetic lives will be lost. Your economy will take a massive blow and will be crippled for weeks.”
Janelle squeezed her eyes shut, putting her hands over her ears and biting her tongue to keep the scream in. She couldn’t sit here and listen any more.
Gary tapped her on the shoulder, as if sensing her agony.
She uncovered her ears to be met with silence. The meeting room lights were still dimmed, and they had to get across the doorway before they turned back on. It was their only chance.
“After this event has passed, I will send a follow-up video with further instructions on how to keep us from striking your other major cities,” Andrina said. “I suggest you follow them.”
It was now or never. Janelle seized Gary’s arm. “Now,” she mouthed.
Joey scooted past the doorway, socks slipping across the floor. The light on Andrina’s face went off, casting her in darkness.
Janelle vaulted across the floor and made it to the other side of the door, Gary in tow. The yellow light clicked back on, casting its rectangle across the hallway.
Her heart leapt, but there were no footfalls. No yells. They’d made it without getting seen.
Joey’s eyes bulged as he waved them forward down the hallway. Sliding her feet across the floor to avoid making noise, Janelle released Gary’s arm and followed.
Ahead, the hallway branched into two. A pair of double doors on the right led into a room where computer screens glowed in neat rows. The other led downstairs into the dark.
Joey turned, nodded, and started down the steps. They must have stuck Leslie in the darkest, creepiest place in the whole complex. Of course.
If she was even still alive.
If she would even still talk to Janelle.
Janelle sucked in a breath. She had to do this, no matter what. She wasn't going to be like the people who'd kidnapped Leslie. Leslie had a normal, human life to return to. It was something Janelle would never have again. And Leslie would go back to it, no matter what.
A faint musty smell invaded her nostrils as she descended deeper into the island. The humming of water heaters echoed through the walls. Below, the stairs ended in a basement where orange lights hung on huge concrete poles. They must be way under the surface of the island now. It looked about as inviting as an underground parking ramp.
Janelle stopped at the stairs. “What’s down here?” she asked, careful not to raise her voice too much.
“Just supplies and food. Nothing dangerous,” Joey said. “There’s three of us. We should be able to take down Kevin if he’s here. I didn't see him at the meeting.”
“You're right,” she said. Gary shifted next to her.
The place was empty. Flies hovered in clouds around a garbage bin on one side of the room. Boxes were stacked up on either side of a steel door that probably led to a freezer. Gray doors lined the end of the basement. Rumbling noises came out from those, but no voices.
“She might be behind one of those,” Janelle said, pointing. Of course they’d put her somewhere crappy. She raced for the first door, feet slapping against the floor. Hot air rushed out as she yanked it open. “Leslie?”
Only the hum of the water heater and the surrounding pipes answered. Janelle stepped into the room, holding her breath as much as she could. “Help me look,” she said, waving Gary into the room.
Janelle peeked behind a group of pipes only to find more cobwebs and a puddle of water on the floor.
“I don’t think she’s in here,” Gary said, looking behind a huge cylinder. “Joey’s right. Andrina probably moved her. Or--” He didn’t finish but let the meaning sink in.
Janelle left the room, slamming the door. “Leslie can’t be dead. Andrina didn’t have time to do that.”
But Kevin did, that mean little voice said.
Joey emerged from a dark room, bringing a swirl of dust out with him. He coughed and shook his head. “Nope. She’s not in there.”
Janelle pointed, her heart racing with one last hope. “There.” The steel door. It was the last one.
Boxes of lettuce, cheese, orange juice cartons, and eggs lined the metal shelves inside. A chill swept through the air. Food storage. Another steel door at the rear of the room waited for them.
“That’s the meat freezer,” Gary said. “I hope she’s not in there.”
It was worth a check. Her heart pounded as she closed the door behind her to stifle the sound of her voice. “Leslie?”
“Janelle? I’m in here. Get me out. I’m freezing!”
A huge sigh of relief escaped her. Leslie was alive, and not screaming at her to go away. “Is anyone in there with you?”
“No. Just come in and untie me. My feet are numb.”
Janelle gripped the cold metal of the freezer door handle and tugged it open with a faint cracking sound. A cold like a January morning wrapped around her as she raced into the room.
Leslie sat against a box of meat with a thick gray blanket wrapped around her. Her foggy breath spiraled towards the ceiling.
“You’re okay,” Janelle breathed, removing the blanket and wrapping her in a hug. “Are you hurt?” Leslie shook her head, teeth chattering, and nodded down towards her arms. They were tied behind her back, but there was no blood on her clothes. “Why’d they put you in here? I’m going to kill Kevin.”
Leslie looked up at her and spoke through her bluish lips. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to say those things to you earlier. Kevin f…forced me to or he was going to break my f…fingers. Oh my god, Janelle. How did we end up in this mess?”
Oh.
Kevin had pulled on Leslie right before she'd told Janelle she didn't want to be her friend anymore. It made sense now. Leslie must have felt awful, sitting in here by herself with that to think about. “Don't worry. I didn't believe it,” she lied, helping Leslie to her feet as Gary undid the ropes around her wrists.
Leslie shot her a you're lying look. “Don't think that I'm not still your friend, Janelle. This whole thing is not your fault.” She wrung out her wrists. “So...is this what that gray spiral on your arm is really about? I thought it was just a birthmark. It might take me a while to get used to it.”
Leslie still wanted to be friends. It made a happy glow spread through Janelle. “Yeah. And I don’t blame you for doing what you did. I’d rather not have your fingers broken,” Janelle said as Leslie’s arms came free. “Where’d Kevin go?”
Leslie shook her head. “He put me in here an hour ago and left. He was keeping me over in that boiler room but that woman came down and told him to move me.”
That woman. Leslie still didn't know the whole truth. It might be best to keep that part a secret until she could absorb the rest.
Joey hung in the doorway, breathing clouds of vapor like a train. “Let’s go. We still have to get the keys. Something weird is going on here. I don't have a good feeling about this.”
He was right. A freezer was a strange place to keep a prisoner.
“Okay,” Janelle said. “We're ou
t of here. And fast.”
Everyone piled out of the freezer. Janelle raced for the door right behind Joey.
Loud crashes sounded on the other side of the steel door. Janelle’s stomach raced up into her throat as Joey stopped and she bumped into him.
“Hurry up, Kevin,” Andrina yelled. “We’ve got to block them in!”
Chapter Seventeen
